1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the regeneration of spent dialysate used in the treatment of kidney failure by hemodialysis, hemofiltration, peritoneal dialysis and the like, and more particularly to regeneration by electrolytic oxidation of the major nitrogen-containing organic waste materials removed from the blood.
Hemodialysis accomplishes removal of waste substances, principally urea, uric acid and creatinine, from the circulating blood by dialysis. The dialysate is an aqueous, saline solution prepared with appropriate concentrations of the essential blood salts which are not to be removed. The performance of a single hemodialysis treatment requires approximately 100 liters of dialysate. Hemofiltration and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis similarly require large amounts of dialysate. The preparation of such large amounts of dialysate is both inconvenient and expensive. The need to provide such a large volume is particularly troublesome when using a portable dialysis unit in the patient's home or other location remote from a large source of dialysate. It is therefore desirable to provide a convenient safe method for regenerating spent dialysate to be used in conjunction with hemodialysis, hemofiltration, and peritoneal dialysis systems to reduce the total volume of dialysate required.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various systems have been proposed for adsorbing or degrading the waste materials present in the circulating dialysate in a hemodialysis unit. Electrolysis of the dialysate above the chloride discharge potential to produce sodium hypochlorite which in turn oxidizes the waste materials is described in British Pat. No. 1,397,324. Wright,
"An Investigation of Electrode Materials for Urea Electro-Oxidation," Engineer's Thesis, Stanford University (1980) discloses the use of ruthenium oxide-titanium oxide electrodes in regenerating spent dialysate by electrolytic oxidation. The use of electrolytic cells to oxidize the waste materials in the blood in vivo is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,878,564 and 3,994,799 to Yao et al.